One way to show appreciation for your pastor’s leadership that many professing Christians don’t like …

October is designated as Pastor Appreciation Month. Every year at this time you’ll see all kinds of articles suggesting a myriad of ways you can demonstrate your appreciation for your pastor. Let me suggest one we usually hear little to nothing about, and one a lot of professing Christians won’t like.

What could that be?

One of the best ways you can show sincere appreciation for your pastor’s leadership is to follow their direction!

Before you start booing and hissing and throwing rocks, let me remind you this is something the Apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us to do:

“Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit,” Hebrews 3:17.

Let’s knock out the, “But what about’s …” right now. Of course you don’t obey any leader who would attempt to lead you into sin in any way. When that isn’t at issue, then “Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say …”

We have so individualized and Americanized our Christianity that we are comfortable to offer our unsolicited opinions and outright criticism about anything any time, including about everything our pastors say (or anything about them), and we do this oblivious to the difficulty that can cause for pastors (for some “weird” examples, check out this post by Thom Rainer). Take, for example, this story told by pastor David Stone:

John Wesley was deeply disturbed by people who seemed to enjoy criticizing others, especially those who were in the Lord’s work. Once while he was preaching, he noticed a lady in the congregation who was well known for her critical attitude. All through the service she sat and stared at his new tie. When the meeting was ended, she came up to him and said very sharply, “Mr. Wesley, the strings on your bow tie are much too long. It’s an offense to me!” He asked if any of the ladies present happened to have a pair of scissors in their purse. When they were handed to him, he gave them to the critic and ask her to trim the streamers to her liking.

After she clipped them off near the collar, he said, “Are you sure they’re right now?”

“Yes,” she said, “that’s much better!”

“Then let me have those shears a moment,” said Wesley. “I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I also give you a bit of correction. I don’t mean to be cruel, but I must tell you, madam, that your tongue is an offense to me – it’s too long! Please stick it out, I’d like to trim some off.”

Of course, Wesley didn’t follow through on his threat, but he sure made his point!

With our Americanizing our Christianity, we think the church is a democracy and that everyone should have their say and a vote. Years ago, when I was part of a denomination, I saw churches conduct monthly “church business” meetings where every member age 16 and older could vote. Much trouble came from those meetings. That’s because the church isn’t a democracy and was never intended to be. It’s God’s design for the church that some of the most spiritually mature men be appointed as elders to lead local congregations. Of course they seek and consider input as appropriate, but their God-given responsibility is to shepherd the flock and make decisions that guide the congregation. The early church would never for a moment have thought about running a church by majority vote of everyone 16 and older because doing so gives as much leadership influence to the most spiritually immature and biblically illiterate as it does to the most godly in the congregation. That isn’t God’s structure for the church, it’s a man-made design that brings strife and troubles to congregations and greatly compounds the difficulty of shepherding for our pastors.

If you want to sincerely appreciate your pastor, then “Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say …” You might be surprised at just how great a blessing that would be to them.

Scotty